Alpha Epsilon Delta? Is it worth it?

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riverjib

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I'm not generally a fan of honors societies. If you maintain a GPA as low as 3.2, they invite you to spend $80 to join something that does little more than hang out on your transcript. I turned down Phi Beta Kappa, Golden Key, and Sigma Beta (a pre-med "invitation only" group that is supposedly prestigious but silly to me, since it's specific to my school only). I am basically living on student loans and whatever I can earn in my spare time. $80 doesn't sound like much, but to me, it's 10% of my monthly rent, two weeks of groceries, or five months of Netflix.

I have heard that AED is actually worthwhile, and offers decent scholarships. All it requires is 30 hours a semester of volunteering, and since I'm in AmeriCorps and volunteer 10 hours a week, I have it covered. Can anyone vouch for AED?

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woah, how could you turn down phi beta kappa?
 
woah, how could you turn down phi beta kappa?

Easy. All you need is a 3.5 GPA. Nobody I know who actually paid to be phi beta kappa members ever got anything out of it, aside from the recognition of joining an "elite" club that isn't really all that elite. Just based on my GPA in a database, I've been invited to join enough "honors societies" that I would have paid close to $1000 for the "privilege" of being a member. When I'm a successful physician, I'll be happy to hand that money over for my kids to join honors societies that are basically pointless. But right now, I'm wearing jeans and sweaters I bought 12 years ago and doing my own oil changes in my driveway so that I can afford my rent and car insurance. I sure as hell don't care about PBK. Neither do med schools, I hope. The fact that I've maintained a 3.8+ GPA and Dean's list every semester shows that the lack of extra honors societies on my transcript is only due to the fact that I can't afford them.

I'm only interested in those that offer perks, like scholarships. If AED doesn't, I'm not going to accept this one, either.
 
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you only need a 3.5 to be phi beta kappa? at my school you pretty much need a 3.93 or something crazy like that, and we definitely don't pay...
 
I joined AED before I decided to be premed, it didn't require volunteering at all for me. It looks good on my resume that I joined, but so do the other two honour societies.
 
PBK and Golden Key would have looked a hulluva lot better than AED. The AED requirement of my undergrad seemed a bit too hard core. I was only part of one undergrad honor society in the Biology department. None of my interviewers ever mentioned any importance these groups might have at an interview.
 
I joined Phi theta kappa as a Sophmore and have so far received 2 scholarships from them totally $1500 so the $35 fee was definatly worth it.

As far as AED, i think it is just another thing to give you volunteer hours. However, I found that the volunteer opprotunities through there were not very fullfilling and therefore will not continue with AED.
 
Nobody I know who actually paid to be phi beta kappa members ever got anything out of it, aside from the recognition of joining an "elite" club that isn't really all that elite.

Yeah, got absolutely nothing from it either. Dont think it even played into my acceptances to be honest.
 
AED seems to be different things for different people...

For some it is a good way to have a cohort of people that are going through and understand the same chaos that medschool applications.

For some it opens up opportunities to volunteerism/etc that might not have been known/available beforehand.

Also it varies from school to school, so who knows what your experience might be like? Personally I tried to avoid the pre-med thing when I was first an undergrad (because a wasn't med school bound) and when I returned I avoided it because everyone was JUST. SO. ENTHUSIASTIC. I couldn't take it...(but that's just me an my institution)...
 
I'm not generally a fan of honors societies. If you maintain a GPA as low as 3.2, they invite you to spend $80 to join something that does little more than hang out on your transcript. I turned down Phi Beta Kappa, Golden Key, and Sigma Beta.

you only need a 3.5 to be phi beta kappa? at my school you pretty much need a 3.93 or something crazy like that, and we definitely don't pay...

Easy. All you need is a 3.5 GPA. Nobody I know who actually paid to be phi beta kappa members ever got anything out of it, aside from the recognition of joining an "elite" club that isn't really all that elite. Just based on my GPA in a database... I sure as hell don't care about PBK. Neither do med schools, I hope. The fact that I've maintained a 3.8+ GPA and Dean's list every semester shows that the lack of extra honors societies on my transcript is only due to the fact that I can't afford them.

Are you sure you are not confusing Phi Beta Kappa with Phi Eta Sigma? Phi Eta Sigma is an honor society for college sophomores who have good freshman GPAs. If you have at least a 3.5 you get in automatically. Phi Beta Kappa is a two hundred year-old liberal arts honor society. There can be minimum GPA requirements, usually about the top 10th percentile. Eligible students must have 90 credit hours under their belts (seniors). Election is not mechanical, candidates are reviewed by the schools faculty members. At my school, nominations were made by the faculty in a student's area of concentration (major). My school inducted about 40 students yearly of about 1200 total students per class (not all were in liberal arts).

Yeah, got absolutely nothing from it either. Dont think it even played into my acceptances to be honest.

PBK serves as a surrogate for class rank (much as AOA does for med students). If the school has a lot of grade inflation (like many Ivy's do), PBK membership can separate the wheat from the chaff. Now, there may be minimal value beyond this if you are definitely going to get into med school and only practice clinical medicine. It may not make much difference unless you go into another job, such as administration.

It does make a difference for applying for other jobs. I can tell you this from experience. Prior to going into medicine, I was an attorney. I went to a very good law school. Even so, my PBK status was brought up on about 1/2 of my law firm interviews.

Ed
 
PBK serves as a surrogate for class rank (much as AOA does for med students). If the school has a lot of grade inflation (like many Ivy's do), PBK membership can separate the wheat from the chaff. Now, there may be minimal value beyond this if you are definitely going to get into med school and only practice clinical medicine. It may not make much difference unless you go into another job, such as administration.

It does make a difference for applying for other jobs. I can tell you this from experience. Prior to going into medicine, I was an attorney. I went to a very good law school. Even so, my PBK status was brought up on about 1/2 of my law firm interviews.

Ed

Thats interesting...and ironic. I got an email today about renewing my membership. No scratch that, it was from phi kappa phi. I can't keep them straight. I haven't gotten any good use from any of them, but that could be because I dont really know anything about any of them. I do know people who have received scholarships etc, from them. I guess its about what you put it and what you are wanting to get out.
 
Are you sure you are not confusing Phi Beta Kappa with Phi Eta Sigma? Phi Eta Sigma is an honor society for college sophomores who have good freshman GPAs. If you have at least a 3.5 you get in automatically. Phi Beta Kappa is a two hundred year-old liberal arts honor society. There can be minimum GPA requirements, usually about the top 10th percentile. Eligible students must have 90 credit hours under their belts (seniors). Election is not mechanical, candidates are reviewed by the schools faculty members. At my school, nominations were made by the faculty in a student's area of concentration (major). My school inducted about 40 students yearly of about 1200 total students per class (not all were in liberal arts).

I'm not sure about the requirements from school to school. I did ask my academic adviser, and I was wrong about the GPA required for invitation at my school...apparently it's the top 10% of the senior class (meaning a GPA higher than a 3.7 or 3.8x or something), so it does actually look good. But when I asked my friends and relatives who are doctors, lawyers, and PhD's, they said they didn't get anything out of PBK, other than the "prestige" of being in the top 10% of your class, which is pretty obvious based on your GPA.

If my parents were funding my education, I'd definitely hit them up for all these membership fees. But I'm supporting myself and I'm already in debt, so I think I'll take my chances that med schools will consider me based upon my GPA, MCAT and everything else. Apparently PBK is more important for those going to law school and other graduate programs.
 
Yeah, AED doesnt really matter, at least at my school. My university's pre med website actually said that all med schools expect you to contribute a lot to AED, which is probably a lie.
 
Alpha Epsilon Deltas are great! Right off, I was taught in CPR class that once they put 'em in places, lives started being saved. CPR alone has a very low percentage of saves, the ol' Alpha Epsilon Delta is the best thing since chest compressions. There's even one in the gym I go to, and in the library.

Heh-heh love the new nickname for the AED too .... oh ... what? Nevermind!
 
Alpha Epsilon Deltas are great! Right off, I was taught in CPR class that once they put 'em in places, lives started being saved. CPR alone has a very low percentage of saves, the ol' Alpha Epsilon Delta is the best thing since chest compressions. There's even one in the gym I go to, and in the library.

Heh-heh love the new nickname for the AED too .... oh ... what? Nevermind!

LOL. Cute. My yearly CPR/ACLS re-certification courses are free for those of us on the payroll, since we wouldn't be allowed near a patient without them!
 
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